From U.S. Pat. No. 4,992,228 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,851 it is known to form a preform of fibre material and to transfer this preform to the mould in which the composite structure is formed.
WO 89/05717 discloses a method of applying a mixture of plastics material and reinforcing fibres to a mould surface of a mould half, said method comprising the steps of placing, e.g. by spraying, a liquid plastics mixture incorporating fibres on a preform forming part whose shape is complementary to the mould surface of the mould half, placing the mould half over the preform forming part with the mould surface upside down, jointly turning the preform forming part and the mould half so that the mould half is located beneath the preform forming part and then removing the preform forming part.
EP 0 271 263 discloses a method of transferring a sheet of pre-impregnated fibre-reinforced material to a mould tool by means of a transfer tool provided with a flexible inflatable diaphragm and having a surface shaped to conform the shape of the surface of the mould tool.
WO 2007/039085 discloses a method of placing a material layer, such as a layer of prepreg., in a mould and comprising the steps of pressing a surface of a elastically-reversibly deformable body against the material layer, generating a holding force, which temporarily fixes the material layer to the surface, and arranging the material layer in the mould by means of the body.
EP 0 577 505 A1 discloses an installation for picking up a pre-cut fibre layer, such as a prepreg., shaping the fibre layer into a preform and transferring the preform to a moulding tool.